Ink Out Loud: Saved by zero; that'll Fixx it

I was parked on a dusty road with a Sharpie and a reporter's notebook in hand and he was near the ocean in Santa Cruz.

Prior to calling him I was thinking about a lost plane, an acquaintance who died unexpectedly, equal pay for women, a man and his grandson killed because of their religion, AB109 and minimum wage.

Ever since I found out The Fixx would be playing at McNear's Mystic Theatre in Petaluma, I've been humming "Saved by Zero."

The busy nature of the rapid-paced world and its issues crowds my head sometimes and I feel like I am hitting a brick wall.

So, I asked singer Cy Curnin how he finds his creativity when that happens to him.

He said he doesn't spend much time around people predisposed to negativity.

"When I hit a brick wall," he said, "I imagine it's more of a big rock in front of a sculptor."

Curnin told me when he started in the music business way back when, he and his bandmates thought they would change the world with their music. "Instead music has changed our world," he said.

It was a fundamentally optimistic time when "Red Skies At Night," "One Thing Leads to Another" and "Saved by Zero," hit the airwaves. People had a false sense of optimism though, Curnin said. "It was a time of easy credit and things. Things don't give any great satisfaction. Now we're experiencing a time where the future looks black to a lot of people. But this is actually a time of real optimism -- the kind you fight for. We are fighting for a peaceful existence," he added.

Trust in originality, making music on their own terms and a raw spectrum of inspiration make songs such as "Saved by Zero" timeless and meaningful, because "Zero" was about "looking at your own life, not so much about amassing material things, but about experiences that lend to genuine happiness."

It clears your head of fear, panic and illusions, bringing you back to the basics by doing away with encumbrances.

Curnin said he believes fear is driving people away from sense of self, natural curiosity and the human experience.

People are so afraid of dying, they are forgetting to live.

"Music can take them out of their world," he said. "It's sad to see people missing the journey."

Curnin's philosophy brought me back to Henry David Thoreau:

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms." -- From Life in the Woods

Mandy Feder is the Managing Editor of Lake County Publishing. She can be reached at 263-5636 or send an email to mandyfeder@yahoo.com.